Who’s the biggest employer?

The BBC news site’s pieces on statistics and data representation are often worth reading but today’s is particularly noteworthy because it looks at where the NHS fits in the league of large employers. I had always worked on the (admittedly anecdotal) basis that the world’s four biggest employers by headcount were the Chinese army, the Indian railways, Wal-Mart and the NHS but it looks as though I’ve bought into an elaborate approximation of the truth. Though on the BBC’s figures the NHS remains huge, even though it isn’t in the top four. Perhaps most striking, in the BBC’s league table, is the appearance of FoxConn, the company which makes products for Apple in particular, at number ten.